Kyorai Mukai, Part 8

August 2013

SPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE KEY-NOTE PUBLIC LECTURE

AT WORLD HAIKU FESTIVAL 2010 IN NAGASAKI

BY

SUSUMU TAKIGUCHI

CHAIRMAN, THE WORLD HAIKU CLUB

Kyorai Mukai (1651－1704):

PART EIGHT

It is an important fact that Kyorai and Kikaku developed such a close relationship, the two poets with significantly different personality and poetic style. That Kikaku played a go-between role to introduce Kyorai to Basho had a profound impact not only on these three eminent people but also more broadly on the Shomon (Basho School),

Shofu (Basho style of haikai) and most importantly on all manner of development of haikai and haiku to this day. We shall look at these points more closely but before that let us examine a little bit more of the way in which Kyorai’s poems began to become noticeable in different anthologies.

We have already seen that Kyorai’s poems which are known to be the first to appear in printed form were the two poems in the anthology “Ichiro-Fu” published in Jokyo 2 (1685). Following this, we have the aforementioned poem which was published in the Saitan-Cho of Jokyo 3 (1686):

hatsu haru ya ie ni yuzuri no tachi hakan

New Year’s Day…

I will wear the sword,

the family treasure

Saitan-Cho is the three-page printed paper (Mitsu-mono) bearing hokku, wakiku and daisan (the first, second and third stanza) from the New Year’s haikai-no-renga meeting. The same poem later appeared in the Zoku Minashiguri with the shogo (first five on) changed from “hatsu-haru ya” to “gan-jitsu ya”. Though Kyorai had given up the idea of becoming samurai he kept the samurai spirit and pride, which is reflected in this poem as it shows the pride of a samurai family with a sword which had been handed from one generation to another and which was an apt object to wear to celebrate the New Year. Kyorai wrote a lot of poems which similarly show the samurai spirit.

In addition to this poem by Kyorai, the same Saitan-Cho carries the Mitsu-mono of Basho’s hokku, Bunsoku’s wakiku and Kyorai’s daisan:

medeta hito no kazu ni mo iran toshi no kure Basho

(celebration,/ I should be counted as a person,/ the Year’s end)

shuku no ichi ni izuru matsu-uri to kikoereba Bunsoku

(market day for excellent poems/comes a pine-decoration vender/one hears)

akatsuki no ashi yuu uma no tomo hoe te Kyorai

(dawn/tying the leg of a horse/a friend cries: Note the precise meaning of this stanza is obscure.)

However, the most important of all for Kyorai was the anthology calledKawazu-Awase (competition on the theme of frogs) which was also compiled in Jokyo 3 (1686). It was compiled by Senka who was a haikai poet living inEdo and a student of Basho. Kawazu-Awase is nothing but the anthology which has the most famous haiku in the world: furu-ike ya kawazu tobi-komu mizu no oto (old pond/a frog jumps in/the sound of water). In it is a pair of poems, one by Kyorai and the other by Rika, which are put together (ku-awase) and the verdict was that Kyorai was the winner.

hito-aze wa shibashi naki-yamu kawazu kana Kyorai

(one rice paddy/stopped making noise for a while/frogs)

mino-uri ga kozo yori mitaru kawazu kana Rika

(a straw raincoat vendor/has seen since last year/this frog)

In the spring of Jokyo 3 (1686) important members of the Basho Schoolgathered together in a haikai meeting at the Basho-an (Basho hut) in Fukagawa, Edo. They held a ku-awase (haiku competition) there, composing only poems about frogs. During the process Shugi-Han (collective judgement) was conducted and the record of it was compiled into an anthology, namely, Kawazu-Awase. As was mentioned, it was published later in the same year. The members included Sodo, Koya, Ransetsu, Sanpu, Sora, Kikaku and Fuboku. As Kyorai lived in Kyoto, he took part in this competition by letter. Even it was done by correspondence, or in fact because of that, it can be said that Kyorai’s rise through the ranks of haikai poets was phenomenal.

As Basho’s “old pond” poem was composed during this Ku-Awase it can be said that the meeting was one of the most important of all in the history of haikai. Basho was especially mindful of this point as he put a lot of mental energy to it. The haiji (verdict comments) of the Shugi-Han make a very interesting and rich reading in terms of their contents. It is also important to note that there are individual poems in the competition which are really excellent. Another important thing connected with this anthology is the fact that Basho took the trouble of writing to Kyorai on 11th of March of the same year. In this letter Basho was singing in praise of Kyorai’s poem. Basho wrote that he and his followers in Edo were all very pleased to see that Kyorai seemed to have acquired the true spirit of haikai very quickly and that when it came to Kyorai’s poem about a frog everyone was much surprised to see something new written about frogs when they all had concluded that whatever poem could be written about frogs they had already written, leaving no room for any new poem to emerge under the same topic.

The same letter also mentions that Basho was going up to Kyoto in the very near future and that he was looking forward to visiting Kyorai at his hut in Sagano and to discussing various matters closely. This visit, however, came to nothing but the letter proves that the relationship between Basho and Kyorai had already become a very close one. It is only natural that we should assume that Basho had already permitted Kyorai to become his disciple by then. On the contrary, it seems to be Basho who was keener to have such a meeting, which may indicate that Basho was willing to welcome Kyorai as his student.

As we have seen Kyorai made a trip to Ise Shrine in the autumn of the same year (1686), after which he went on to visit Edo in early winter, where he had a life-changing encounter with Basho. (To be continued)